Okay, this is a long but Henry centric chapter. We'll get some plot but mostly how he understands his true purpose and how he feels about it. I chose Afterlife by AvengedSevenfold because it's meaning (as defined by the band themselves) parallels this very well. And a few things working in the background too.
Updated tag list from AO3:
Archive Warnings:
Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Underage
Categories:
Gen,F/M,M/M
Fandom:
Once Upon a Time (TV)
Relationships:
Henry Mills/Peter Pan,Prince Charming/Snow White,Captain Hook | Killian Jones/Evil Queen | Regina Mills,Neal Cassidy/Emma Swan,Felix/Peter Pan (Once Upon a Time),Felix/Henry/Peter Pan (Once Upon a Time,),Mozenrath/Jasmine,Destane/Mozenrath
Characters:
Henry Mills (Once Upon a Time),Evil Queen | Regina Mills,Snow White | Mary Margaret Blanchard,Emma Swan,Baelfire | Neal Cassidy,Captain Hook | Killian Jones,Prince "Charming" James | David Nolan,Peter Pan (Once Upon a Time),Felix (Once Upon a Time),Princess Jasmine,Princess Tiger Lily,Rumplestiltskin | Mr. Gold,Gabriel (OC Chaos Mage),Mozenrath,Destane,Mad Hatter | Jefferson,pretty much everyone in the OUAT universe mentioned at some point
Additional Tags:
Family Secrets,Mind Games,Death,Blood and Gore,Psychological Trauma,Incest,Underage Sex,General Depravity,Really Dark Shit...
*OUATE*
Happily ever afters don't exist.
Until next time is a much better ending to the stories he grew to believe in.
The stories that aren't stories, but woefully exaggerated synopses of real people and events. People he loved and couldn't help but pity.
Henry felt rather foolish believing the ultimate end game would be his birth mother breaking the curse. It had to be done...but then what? What of all the spillover from the Enchanted Forest? From what he could tell, evident from his own book no less, not a damn person in Storybrooke had a happy ending at any point before the Dark Curse was cast. A story's end implies nothing further of any significance would happen. Nothing more need be resolved. That obviously wasn't the case.
No one thought it remotely relevant that Rumpelstiltskin was still the Dark One even though he had his true love by his side then and now. Why?
The Evil Queen was still the woman who had raised him. Loved him enough to open the heart she had shut so long ago only to feel the pain of his initial rejection. She had not escaped her own cursed fate as she had hoped.
His father, the motivation for the curse's creation had hopped out of the pan onto the fire in a desperate quest to hang on to the ghost of the man he knew and loved.
His birth mother was so damn guarded, so cynical of the world that even after all she had seen, she still did not believe she was worthy of love, compassion or any of the good things in life. Her whole existence consisted of never letting her happiness be taken away by never letting it exist at all.
His royal grandparents were marred by the fact that in doing everything they could to protect their precious princess, they had doomed her to a life of pain and robbed themselves of the chance to be there when she needed them most.
And that was only a few examples. That affected ones closest to him.
He wanted so badly for everyone to be okay. To have his family together and enjoying their lives. A fairy tale come to life. But he knew that wasn't possible. There was just too much clutter, too many frayed ends for one kiss to repair. There would always be SOMETHING out there. It's just how the world works. How it's always worked. The choice he made to save Felix opened his eyes to that fact.
The Moon was not a sadist who cared only to watch his puppets dance. Who held no concern for the lives he shaped and/or destroyed. He had simply learned that his feelings were irrelevant to what must be done in order to protect his world. That his own blindness to that is what set all of this in motion.
Ignorance is far from bliss and knowledge is power. Cliched but no less true. Unfortunately, in the same manner, power is a burden. A burden the child was not looking forward to sharing with his family.
We are not born deserving happiness, only the chance to earn and keep it. Nothing worth having isn't fought long and hard for.
Peter, Felix even Hook understood that. As he did now.
So, he pretended to sleep. Curled up like the child he was (and wasn't anymore) in the arms of one of his lovers. Something else he didn't want to explain to them.
But probably had no choice.
*OUATE*
The camp was nothing like the abandoned one they stumbled upon in the ambush.
First, it was very clear that they had over estimated the size of Pan's army. Confusion fueled by strategic placement, the time of day and the haze of battle ballooned their numbers up to dozens. There weren't more than about twenty young men frozen in time.
Second, they did play and horse around but everyone had a job to do. One they seemed super efficient at performing silently. Not a single boy had made a noise since the adults arrived. At first, they assumed it was out of distrust or something.
Until Neal cleared it up.
"They don't have to talk. Lost boys share kinda a hive mind." He grumbled as he sat on a raised flat stone.
"Like ants?" Mary Margaret blinked when one boy suddenly stood to rush to a nearby hut. "How sad..."
"Not really. It's hard to explain. They're still individuals but when they need to, they have a psychic link that hooks up all their minds. Its how they can take down large groups of older, able bodied and supposedly stronger men like nothing. What one sees and hears, they all do."
"Regular Children of the Damned aren't they?" Rumple muttered.
"Or a pack of wolves." Snow added with a look of revulsion. She was sort of upset all she could think of in comparison to their pack mentality were relatives of Red.
"You know a lot for someone who spent most of his time here hiding." David said.
"..." The con artist bristled. "He doesn't make you a lost boy against your will. Part of what makes it so devious. Instead, he explains it. Tells you exactly what he will do, exactly how much of yourself you have to surrender to him. Then convinces you to do it. I ran before he could talk me into it but knowing what I know now, that was the whole point. He let me run. Let me hide. Let me think I escaped."
"Because without you, and adult you, there'd be no Henry." The savior looked over at her son.
The sight before Emma disturbed her on so many levels. While she understood the gist of the situation, seeing it didn't make things any less unsettling. How would you feel if your 11 year old son was soundly sleeping in the lap of the same immortal teen that had been actively trying to off you and your family since you got to this mad house?
Well, one of them anyhow. Felix wasn't asleep, only sitting with his eyes closed, absently stroking her son's back. The child squirmed a little, scratching his neck then snuggling impossibly closer to his living pillow. Pan was...somewhere. But his shadow was skulking about, watching the camp as everyone stood/sat around anxiously or went about their chores with those sinister white eyes. Also less than comforting.
"If your intent is to will me out of existence Savior, gonna have to try harder than that." The blonde teen said suddenly. Without opening his eyes, he continued. "The intensity in that stare of yours has some serious power behind it Emma. We're not going to hurt him."
"Two centuries old not-really-teen psychos have an attraction to my prepubescent son." Emma glared. "I don't trust you or Pan in the least. Not that torture and attempted murder are great ways to earn trust mind you."
"Well, that's not fair. The Dark One and Evil Queen have done quite a bit more to your family than either of us yet you trust them enough to bring along on this little trip. Why, Regina's even teaching you magic." His lip curled in a smirk that made her shiver. His now open eyes flared red momentarily "You really ought to relax and rest while you have the chance."
"Where's Pan?" She snapped, trying to break eye contact. No matter how she tried, she couldn't look away. Felix was doing something to her, something she could not fight. That's when she noticed his free hand splayed in the dirt.
Where the late morning sun cast her shadow.
"Resting. Sit down Savior." That last part was said with a tone Emma could not resist. She threw herself onto the nesting of furs that had been placed there earlier by a lost boy.
"Let me go." Her eyes narrowed.
"Sleep."
With that command, she fell into the dark. She barely registered her mother's alarmed shout just before dropping herself.
It was sometime later that she awoke. Pan had returned, standing crossed armed and looming over his paramours.
Oh dear god did that sound sooo fucking wrong!
"So are we supposed to believe that with your heart back, you're not an evil little creep anymore?" Regina frowned. "Putting us all to sleep like that while you do who knows what to us didn't help those ill feelings."
"No. That would be rather stupid, your majesty. You and Rum both have hearts. You both still managed to be terrible people." Pan rolled his eyes. "Let me clarify the difference between 12 hours ago and now. Then, I knew I'd won. I had Henry and felt it was time to let Seether have his fun as a reward for being so patient. Didn't give one fuck about the lot of you."
"And now?" Neal frowned.
"I still don't." Was the deadpan answer. " You could all spontaneously combust, my only concern would be how sad it would make Henry. There's a heart beating in my chest yet the only people I am capable of feeling anything but apathy or general malice for are Felix, Henry and my Lost Boys." He shrugged.
"Tiger Lily told us you aren't as bad as we thought." Snow began. "That we just didn't understand. But the Moon said when we were meant to know we would."
"..." Pan looked annoyed. "Because it's true, you don't. I am an agent of chaos Snow White, just as Tiger Lily is. We are two sides of the same coin, neither is good, neither is bad. Just opposites."
"Then why did she try to help us where as you've been making our lives miserable for the better part of a millennia?" Gold was just as curious as he was angry about the situation.
At this, the Eternal teen sneered.
"Oh Rum, you're the last person who should be asking me that. Didn't the seer's thank you gift teach you anything?" With that, he vanished. Just as Henry stirred. Felix placing a gentle kiss on the small boy's neck. Making the skin of most members of Team Good n Evil crawl.
"I'm sorry. Peter's always gonna be kinda an ass." Henry sighed, blushing slightly. "To be fair, it's just who he is. Felix and me ground him; the connection keeps him from going totally off the deep end but..."
"But it's just a connection. We're not Pan any more than a tree is water. Stop thinking just because Henry is his heart, everything is will be sunshine and rainbows." Felix finished, earning a huff from the younger boy. "They need to know Henry."
"Know what? What aren't you telling us?" Regina demanded. Her gaze was directed at the blonde.
"That things are so much more complicated than you could ever imagine. You hate Peter for all the 'evil' he's done. Did it ever occur to any of you his actions lead to the most favorable results? Not a single one of you would exist now."
"Yes, we went through hell and back for it. Oh what a wonderful existence that's been. That sick fuck enjoys every bit of pain he causes." Neal laughed. "Not one of us is anything short of a goddamned mess thanks to him. Some are just better at hiding it."
"It's true our Evil Angel delights in the mayhem he creates." That voice was Henry's but...it seemed so...distant. So much older than they remembered. "For the task at hand, it would be cruel to have made him any other way."
"Everything Peter, we, have done we have done so for the benefit of all, not just those closest to us. We follow the will of the Moon." Felix brushed a stray strand of hair from forehead of the boy in his arms.
"Oh, great." David muttered. He knew what was coming. His "my wife is pissed and there's not a damned thing I can do about it" sense was buzzing like a bitch. No matter how supportive holding her closely was, it would do nothing to soothe her.
"I don't care who or what you are. Or who you follow like sheep! You got a lot of nerve brushing off the shit you put us through as trivial!" Snow White exploded. Even Regina took a step back from the angry young Queen. The fairest one of all was shaking with rage. "I lost my mother, my father, my kingdom, MY CHILD because of you! Good, well meaning people were...were warped into monsters or forced to suffer terrible fates for what?! Your amusement?!"
The older boy raised an eyebrow at that, secretly amused. The Moon's plans for her worked out very well indeed.
"A true evil is coming. More accurately an unbalancing force. One whose machinations serve no purpose other than obtaining power. Something doe eyes and optimistic views would be steamrolled over by." The young man smirked. It was so odd; first impressions of Pan's SIC portrayed him as slow witted, blindly loyal muscle. This was the most any of them, save Neal had heard him speak. "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger as they say. Your lives were harsh, get over it."
"If things were let alone, all of existence would have collapsed a long time ago. Your trials were not trivial, grandma, but were necessary." Brown eyes closed, hesitant to continue. He knew how he spoke unsettled them but couldn't stop. At the risk of sounding horrendously harsh, he drew in a breath and kept speaking. "The entitled, self important little bitch you could have been would have ruined your kingdom. More so than the Evil Queen did. As ruthless as Regina was, she provided stability and security so long as she got her way of course. You wouldn't have been able to do that. But you did once she was dethroned. The painful connection the two of you share forced you both to grow."
"WHAT?!" The Evil Queen screamed in disbelief. Her stepdaughter drawing back as if struck in the face.
"Whoa there. That is not something Henry would say, let alone to Snow. What did you freaks do to him?!" Emma yelled. She was finally aware enough to join the conversation.
"It was my choice, not theirs mom. I chose to wake up and face my destiny. I gave my heart to Felix to save his life. To save Pan and Neverland. Binding myself to them both forever. I didn't have to. I could have just let him die on the off chance that we could have escaped in time to go home." He smiled weakly. "But even if we made it, that wouldn't have done anything to save us from the danger to come."
"What danger could possibly be worse than you and Pan boy?" Gold glared at Felix. He, like the others, believed the blonde to be pulling sweet Henry's strings.
"You're what? Maybe twenty years older than me 'Stiltskin? Please." He laughed bitterly. "You know him as Destane, the Black Death."'
*OUATE*
"It seems the Moon God has made his move. My turn then, don't you agree my pet?" A deep voice chuckled. A hand reached out of the darkness to stroke the pale face set with vacant violet eyes kneeling by his throne.
"Yes master." The reply was lifeless, hollow. The golden band around Mozenrath's neck had made him little more than one of his father's precious figurines.
"So much like your mother. Shame it wasn't in looks alone." The dark sorcerer tilted his son's face upward. The older man's striking youthful appearance hid his age very well. Looking not a day over thirty something. "You thought you made your body useless to me by removing the source of your power. Oh no my son, you gave me exactly what I wanted. More or less. A perfect living doll. Obedient and so eager to please."
Destane purred as he pulled the younger man into his lap. Everything was going according to plan. He need only wait until his new body came to him. One does not live centuries without knowing the virtue of patience. Very soon, his diamond in the rough would appear to be shaped and molded to his desire.
While he waited he would play with his pretty little toy to pass the time as he had done since his resurrection. Admiring and worshipping every detail of his finest creation.
That brazen whore would be punished for daring to touch what belonged to him in due time.
*OUATE*
Yep, Destane played Moz and Jaz like a fiddle. Moz wasn't born to be his father's vessel but his concubinus.
Yes, that is a word. I swear; think Latin Rome. However the meaning has become...kinda obscured over time. It originally meant a young male sex slave belonging to an older man. But there are cases of these supposed slaves being of higher status than their owner's wife, if he even married at all.
Yes I'm twisted but you knew that already. At least I hope you figured it out by now. I did say before I'd seriously darken the OUAT universe. Speaking of figuring, who is Destane waiting for? Who's the diamond in the rough? And what did Pan mean about the seer?
Stay tuned to find out.
Reviews are like hugs! Sirensoundwave out.